A few scenarios based on life as we know it today:

---Catholic parents are confronted with a teenager who is insisting on getting a tattoo and/or some piercings (tongue, eye brow, lip, belly button) "because all my friends have them and their parents didn't care." Apart from aesthetics, isn't it immoral to mutilate our bodies?

---Parents of a young adult who is developmentally disabled are encouraged by state social workers to have their daughter sterilized to ensure that she cannot become pregnant if she engages in sexual activity. You want to protect your daughter and she certainly could easily be victimized because of her trusting and simple nature, but it is clear that the Church rejects sterilizations. Could this be accepted as a form of "self-defense"?

---A young activist priest has moved into your inner city parish and wants to revive a boxing club for youth as a way to keep them out of gangs. Your 12-year-old son is anxious to join, but you wonder if this activity will simply deter him from focusing on what is most important --- his academics --- as well as expose him to harm. You've read stories and seen pictures of prize fighters whose bodies and minds have been destroyed by the sport. Will you sign your son's permission slip?

Due respect
Catholics living in contemporary Western society are presented with both new and old moral questions about what constitutes immoral attacks to the human body, whether that is one's own body or that of another.

Catholic theological journals, for example, have debated the morality of boxing and prize-fighting for more than a century. Is it really morally acceptable to engage in a deliberate attack on another person, with the potential for great harm to be done, in the name of sport and entertainment? Where is the line drawn between acceptable risk to oneself or others and unacceptable? Are the "extreme" sports of today morally justified?

What about more common activities that involve the body like tattoos and piercings? Do Christians have a right to do whatever they want to their own bodies?

Drug abuse, cigarette smoking, gluttony, the use of contraceptives, artificial steroids, sexual intimacy outside of marriage, professional boxing, bull fighting, even tattooing and piercing are examples of questions that are part of the contemporary moral landscape that all arise from a Christian concern to ensure due respect for one's body. It should be clear that these issues are not all on the same moral plane, but they do all revolve around the "body" and deserve some moral reflection.

A biological and spiritual unity
Recently, largely due to the work of Pope John Paul II, there has been a recovery of interest among Catholics in what is often referred to as the Theology of the Body. It refers to a series of 129 lectures the Holy Father gave during his Wednesday audiences between September 1979 and November 1984. As the first major teaching of his pontificate, the complete addresses were later compiled and published as a single work: The Theology of the Body: Human Love in the Divine Plan.

The theology of the body as presented by John Paul is rich and nuanced and deserves its own reading. While it does not address specifically the moral issues outlined above, it does provide a wonderful theological foundation for Catholics and reminds us that Catholic moral theology is reasonable morality, based not on biblical fundamentalism but rather on the natural law. Understanding and respecting the beauty and wonder of the body as a biological and spiritual unity is the proper foundation for moral decisions that involve the body.

At the very beginning of lectures on the theology of the body, Pope John Paul II focuses considerable attention on Genesis 1:27 as the premier theological foundation for the Judeo-Christian understanding of the person and her/his body: "God created us in his image … male and female he created us."

"The level of that first account of our creation is especially of a theological character," noted John Paul in his Sept. 12, 1979 general audience on the Biblical Account of Creation. "It affirms the absolute impossibility of reducing persons to the world. …people cannot be either understood or explained completely in terms or categories taken from the "world" …notwithstanding this, people also are corporeal."

We are reminded that "creation" and "procreation" are joined in Genesis when God tells us to "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth." Ultimately, God sums up the culmination of creation and procreation in the powerful revelation, "God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good" (Gen. 1:31).

Stewards, not owners
The theology of body as presented by Pope John Paul II begins by reminding us that:
1) We are God's creatures.
2) We are created in God's image.
3) All creation is good.

This leads us to some moral applications of the theology. Our bodies are gifts from God, good gifts. The Church does not teach us that our bodies are somehow sinful or evil or even "less" than our souls. The Church has always embraced and celebrated the body in theology and her art.

Thus, we are called to be "stewards" more than "owners" of these good gifts. Any actions that attack or harm one's own or another's body without a commensurate reason is immoral.

Similarly moral stewardship of the body is not only a negative one (don't smoke, don't mutilate the body, don't use contraceptives, don't abuse alcohol, don't use drugs, don't abuse steroids, don't engage is risky behavior like drinking and driving, etc.). It also entails a positive mandate, that we are morally responsible to do what is in our power to maintain good health.

Holy and healthy
A holy lifestyle is necessarily a healthy lifestyle. Being reasonably health conscious is a moral obligation for every Christian. Christians who have health issues like elevated blood pressure and cholesterol levels have a moral obligation to eat healthily and exercise regularly.

A true pro-life agenda begins with being pro-life with one's own body. How can we bring the good news of Jesus' pro-life Gospel to others if we do not have a pro-life lifestyle ourselves? Out-of-shape and sedentary parents will have a difficult time convincing their teenager to be respectful of their own body and that of others, whether the issue is tattoos, piercings or too much time with video games.

Tattoos and boxing are not mentioned in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. That is not to say they are not legitimate issues. However, it is clear that tattoos, piercings and boxing are not considered "intrinsically evil" actions by the Church. Ultimately, this means that they are not evil actions in and of themselves.

The moral question involved in a deliberation considering any of these three acts is: Is the risk of danger to one's body reasonable in light of the goal of the action. In fact, for some cultures, tattoos are an almost indispensable part of society and so a moral evaluation would be very different from cultures in which they are viewed as purely an individual choice.

A classic moral text compiled by the Prefect of the Apostolic Signature in 1957 comes to the following conclusion about boxing:

"Mere entertainment, monetary gain and reward are not sufficient motives in themselves for engaging in sports involving a proximate danger of injury. These motives are undoubtedly sufficient if the danger is simply remote, as, e.g. in basketball, soccer and the like" (Dictionary of Moral Theology, p. 1158).

In other words, any moral justification of boxing would necessarily involve both greater safeguards of bodily safety and a greater reason to engage in behavior involving a "proximate" danger of injury than would that of tattooing and piercing which involve significantly less but nevertheless real potential for health risk. The Catholic moralist would make a major distinction then between "amateur" boxing as found in the Olympic Games, with its significantly enhanced rules (e.g., mandatory head gear and three-round matches), and professional prize fighting.

In the case of the at-risk developmentally disabled young adult, the concern of the parents must be acknowledged. However, the Church would defend the right of every individual to bodily integrity and so would see any prophylactic sterilization as unjustified. "It [direct sterilization] is absolutely forbidden … even when it is motivated by a subjectively right intention" (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "Response on Uterine Isolation," 1994).

The integrity of the body
In the end, Catholic theology understands that the body is good, is created by God and therefore everyone has a duty to love and respect their own body and that of all others. A renewed understanding and commitment to the theology of the body as called for by Pope John Paul II serves as a firm foundation for Christian morality, especially moral choices that involve the integrity of the body.

If we truly understand that every human being is created in the image of God, how can anyone even try to justify direct attacks on themselves or others like suicide, abortion, artificial contraception, genocide, capital punishment or racism? We are stewards of our bodies and those of our sisters and brother, and we are called to look beyond our temporary earthly home to eternal life.

The aging of our own body, and indeed the body of every other member of society, is a daily reminder that we live in time and not yet in eternity. Nevertheless, each day, while we cherish the gift of life, we come closer to attaining the ultimate reason for which we were created, eternal life with God.

Vincentian Father Richard Benson is academic dean and professor of moral theology at St. John's Seminary, Camarillo. His column appears monthly in The Tidings.